outer_divide | Video: Late Wednesday

[The video turns on to a very bedraggled, dusty Thero with a torn tunic and several nasty bruises, scowling and pressing buttons with an expression that makes it clear he might as well be poking a dead rat for all he approves of this little device. Eventually, he decides to accept that it's working. His expression lightens some, all the way to formality with an overlay of confusion.]

Third damn time... Ahem. This is L- This is Thero i Procepios. Most of you don't know me, but I've been given to understand this is an open-ended means of communication. As well as a monitored one, so I'll be brief. In the wake of the sky practically falling in the moment I... arrived and my lack of a stomach for battles, I've met very few of you, and I wouldn't blame anyone for distrusting me. However, when it comes to recovery, I may be able to make myself useful. I've been hesitant to explore even now that things seem to be quiet. I'm unfamiliar with this kind of combat and I suspect I'd only get in the way or get myself killed if things were to resurge, but if someone can direct me, I'm entirely willing to venture out again. I have some basic training as a healer, but I'd be best suited to removal of rubble or even assisting with reconstruction. And, frankly, if anything specific, especially anything odd, needs doing, there's every likelihood I could find a way to assist.

[Is that a good way to suggest magical help without outright saying it? He's never had to try that before. Close enough. For another minute he struggles with the device, scowling, until it finally shuts off.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's how it was explained to me, though testing that is probably high on the to-do list. I don't think the dome itself is so much the trouble, more what it represents. A cordoning off of peoples, so to speak, with those inside the dome exerting power over those outside. I only know the little I was told by another of the transplants I met on the way out of that ship.

[So he lectures a little. It's just the way he talks.]

Oh. Well, it's still more'n anybody's told me, so... whatever.

[Todd looks a little uncomfortable with the whole thing. He's not very self-motivated, at all, and he's not really sure just what to do with this new knowledge-- much less a new ally who apparently isn't gonna yell at him. Just be kind of stuck-up and hard to understand.]

So what're you gonna do about it?

What I do with all the problems I don't want and never asked for. Find out what's causing it and make that stop happening. Not something I can do alone, though. If I attempt, say, a physical infiltration, I usually wind up, say, with a poisoned needle in my neck. It's not my line.

[Ugh. No luck ever.]

[Aaaand there would be the catch, right there. He doesn't want to be some guy's fall-boy! Looking alarmed, he exclaims,]

Hey, hey, I ain't gonna go gettin' no poison needles, neither, man!

I wouldn't wish those on anyone, I assure you. Ugh. I was just trying to illustrate the kind of thing that happens if I try for that line of work. Hopefully trapped locks are less common here, but no one's asking you to subject yourself to them if there are. But being able to go straight up a wall continues to strike me as a useful skill.

Well. All right. I guess.

[He's a little mollified. A little! Todd hunkers down into his usual crouch, now, and asks the big question.]

So what're you gonna do, then, an' have me do? Or d'you even know yet?

I'm used to having a network that spans a continent, and a continent that follows the rules of magic and technology I understand. But for all I'm at sea, the usual approach seems applicable. Gather as much information as possible, determine exactly who's responsible for what in any and all factions, and take action only then. Generally by isolating and eliminating the problems.

[Admittedly, that's very proactive for Watcher business, but he has no royal family to apply to, no Oreska elders, no council.]

So, for the time being, mainly gathering information.

And what'm I supposed to do for that? Hang around under windows?

[Which he can totally do. It'd just be really boring.]

That dome thingy is pretty sealed off. And there's, like, soldiers'n stuff all patrolling it. Not gonna find out much there.

If there weren't a way to do it, we presumably wouldn't be here. And hanging around under windows, while useful, is a bit undirected. I'd mainly suggest keeping an ear to the ground until we find out more.

[Sigh.]

Realistically, until I find out more. There's no one else to take magical risks. Undirected sightings are a terrible headache, too.

Okay.

[Which is pretty much all Todd's been doing. That, and being lazy. So not much change there.]

Guess you know how ta find me when you wanna, huh?

[And vice versa, but Todd's not really used to being the proactive one in a working relationship.]

That's a good point. This will do for everyday purposes, but I don't like this mode of communication. Partly because it's monitored.

[Mostly because it makes him feel dumb.]

[Thero fishes what looks like a stick with a blue stripe painted on from his pocket, mutters a few words under his breath, and hands it over.]

In an emergency, you can break this and it'll convey a short message to me. Just a few sentences and it will cut off. Or if you're in immediate danger, just snap it, and I'll know where you are.

Huh.

[Todd takes the stick, and turns it this way and that curiously. Hey, at least it's kind of nice of the guy to want to help if he's in trouble. Or something.]

Thanks. I'll do that, I guess. You can talk long-distance with that wizard-stuff, then?

[If the phones are being monitored, that's really pretty handy.]

I much prefer it, honestly. It also allows instantaneous travel, which takes a great deal out of me but is very convenient in emergencies.

[Just so he knows what'll happen in the event of having to just snap the stick.]

Oh, so yer a teleporter? Or, I guess, you can just do what they do. With this magic stuff.

[Todd nods, and shifts to stuff the stick into his back pocket. It sticks out several inches, but at least it seems relatively secure.]

Guess I'll see you around, then, yo.

[They? But maybe he better not push. He's not very good at kids, and this one seems at the end of his capacity for interest.]

I'm sure you will. I don't expect to be hard to find.

[Thero would be right about that. Todd's about done here. He gaves Thero a platful sort of salute, and starts for the door out. He pauses just outside, snickers, and answers him over his shoulder,]

Maybe next time I needja I'll just hang out, outside your window!

[He's joking. Mostly. Since Thero's window would just be a slit near the ceiling, given he's downstairs.]

It would be very boring. I wouldn't bother.

[But that was very nearly pleasant. There might be some hope after all.]

Video: Late Wednesday

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